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Government, Politics, and Reform

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln are all represented in the Museum's collections—by a surveying compass, a lap desk, and a top hat, among other artifacts. But the roughly 100,000 objects in this collection reach beyond the possessions of statesmen to touch the broader political life of the nation—in election campaigns, the women's suffrage movement, labor activity, civil rights, and many other areas. Campaign objects make up much of the collection, including posters, novelties, ballots, voting machines, and many others. A second group includes general political history artifacts, such as first ladies' clothing and accessories, diplomatic materials, ceremonial objects, national symbols, and paintings and sculptures of political figures. The third main area focuses on artifacts related to political reform movements, from labor unions to antiwar groups.

This is one of the first models of Liberty cast in the United States. Often described as the American Committee Model, this statuette was produced in the tens of thousands. It was sold to subscribers to finance the construction of a pedestal for the full-size statue in New York Harbor.

Based upon the design of the French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, with Bartholdi’s full cooperation, the miniature statues were produced in six- and twelve-inch sizes. A national newspaper campaign advertised statuettes at one dollar for the six-inch model seen here or five dollars for a twelve-inch version. Richard Butler, a New York–based rubber manufacturer, chaired the American Committee of the Statue of Liberty and oversaw the models’ production.

The campaign disseminated likenesses of Liberty throughout the United States and the world, turning the figure into a household souvenir while raising more than enough money for the construction of the monumental stone pedestal. The finished monument, Liberty Enlightening the World, was dedicated October 28, 1886.

Gift of Richard Butler, Secretary of the American Committee on the Statue of Liberty, 1885

This stone is a memorial of one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th century—the construction of a bridge spanning the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Also known as the Eads Bridge in tribute to its chief engineer, James B. Eads, it provided a vital link between Illinois and the eastern states and St. Louis and the west.

Eads sank his bridge piers to bedrock at a time when others thought that sand would be sufficient. From barges with cranes, masons laid stone on the framework of a caisson, pushing it into the sandy riverbed. The caisson of the east pier reached bedrock, “127 ½ ft. below high water mark and 80 ft. under sand,” in January 1871. Eads is believed to have sent this souvenir cut from bedrock to a bridge investor, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox.

The storming of the Bastille, a former royal garrison and prison in the city of Paris, on July 14, 1789, was a seminal event in the history of the French Republic and a revolutionary symbol that has been celebrated in Franco-American relations ever since. The demolition of the Bastille left a debris field that fed the market for Revolutionary relics in France, England, and the United States. The Marquis de Lafayette, for example, presented George Washington with a key to the Bastille that Washington proudly displayed in the center hall at Mount Vernon.

This briefcase was used by economist Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.” President Ronald Reagan based much of his economic policy during the 1980s on Friedman’s economic arguments. Friedman taught at the University of Chicago for over thirty years and advised many politicians. The Economist considered him “the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century.”

During the 1970s, California’s largest electric utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), came under intense pressure from environmental organizations and the California Energy Commission to encourage its customers to conserve energy. PG&E complied, launching a public relations campaign that included this button, which dates from about 1980.

The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.

The grassroots environmental movements that sprang up in America in the 1960s and early 1970s gave rise to new organizations and campaigns urging the conservation of natural resources. The A&P Grocery chain used this paper shopping bag promoting energy conservation in the mid-1970s demonstrating that even corporate America responded to the call for increased environmental awareness.

The Spaniards who invaded Mexico brought to North America a well-developed equestrian tradition. Over the centuries, horses, saddles, and other riding paraphernalia were altered by the landscape and the lifestyles of both Spanish and indigenous riders. Accompanied by mariachi music, la charrería is the elaborate and spectacle-driven tradition of horsemanship in Mexico. As a national sport rooted in the everyday demands of ranching, the crafts and techniques of charrería were adopted and modified by American settlers in the 19th century. They in turn developed their own rodeo tradition. This elaborate saddle with embossed silver medallions was given to General Philip Sheridan by a Mexican friend in 1866. In that year, General Sheridan armed Mexican nationalists led by Benito Juárez, and headed a 50,000-man army along the U.S.-Mexico border in order to pressure France to end its occupation of Mexico.

This cotton quilt top was found at a fair in Montgomery County, Maryland. The appliquéd designs of the blocks are similar to many found on Maryland album quilts of the mid-19th century. One block is signed in ink, “Rebecca Diggs.”

A log cabin with a barrel marked “Hard Cider” and a raccoon on the roof appears on another block. Variations of this motif were popular at the time and commemorated William Henry Harrison’s “log cabin and cider” presidential campaign of 1840. The symbols were originated by the opposition party, but Harrison turned the tables and utilized them to identify himself with the common man. He won the election only to die of pneumonia a month after his inauguration.

This neatly made example of a “Hawaiian Flag” quilt was presented to Rosina Kalanikauwekiulani Ayers on the occasion of her marriage to Dr. Robert Henry Dinegar in 1898. “Hawaiian Flag” quilts generally are not used, but rather are valued as a treasured heirloom and displayed as such or given to esteemed friends or family on significant occasions.

Although the Hawaiian flag first appeared in the early part of the nineteenth century, only later did the flag motif become characteristic of a distinct type of Hawaiian quilt. The design became popular after 1893 when the American settlers replaced the monarchy and Queen Lili‘uokalani abdicated the throne. Quilters incorporated the Hawaiian flag and coat-of-arms motifs on their quilts to honor their heritage and show loyalty to the Hawaiian nation and monarchy.

The four pieced Hawaiian flags on this quilt are arranged around appliquéd and embroidered details from the royal crown and coat-of-arms, including the two guardians of King Kamehameha I (1756-1819), the first king of Hawaii. “HAWAII PONOI / UA MAU KE EA O KA‘AINA IKA PONO” (THE LIFE OF THE LAND IS PERPETUATED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS) is appliquéd in the center. It is a motto that appears on the state seal and is attributed to King Kamehameha III (1813-1854). Quilting, typical of Hawaiian Flag quilts, consists of chevrons, diagonal lines, and grid on the flag sections, with echo quilting in the center.

Rosina Georgetta Kalanikauwekiulani Ayers (family name Manaku) was born January 12, 1877, in Lahaina, Maui. She was a descendent of King Kamehameha I, who established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810. In 1898, Rosina married Robert Henry Dinegar (1870-1930) and they had two children. Robert Dinegar received his medical degree from New York University Medical College in 1892 and a few years later moved to the Hawaiian Islands as a government and plantation physician. Among other accomplishments, he is credited with reducing the death rate at plantations from a hundred a year to ten. In 1909 he moved his family to Albany, New York, where he continued to practice medicine. Robert died, age 59, in 1939 and Rosina died in May 1966. Her daughter, Adelaide McDonough, graciously donated her mother’s Hawaiian coat-of-arms quilt in 1978. Her note with the donation stated that her mother “. . . was always proud of her lineage & I know would be happy that these artifacts [her quilt] are in the Smithsonian Institution.”